“Carnival could have fixed this problem” – cruisers still upset over loyalty changes

Cruise Passenger readers always have plenty to say about what’s going on in Australian cruise, and in the broader cruise community. In Your Say, Cruise Passenger looks at the issues our readers are writing to us about on our blogs, posts and newsletters. 

One of the biggest cruise controversies of recent years was when Carnival Cruise Line announced their new loyalty program, which would be a rolling two-year system, rather than the lifelong cumulative status that it used to have, and which most other cruise lines use.

Since the initial outrage, Carnival has made fairly significant changes, for example, chopping and changing who gets to keep their status under the new program and when it comes into effect, but the concept of the new program is still largely the same as the initial announcement.

Carnival Rewards, the new loyalty program, will come into effect starting from this September. Carnival has begun sending emails to help migrate users over to the new program and as a result, the discourse has entered back into online cruise spaces.

A series of Cruise Passenger readers still have plenty to say on the matter.

Cherly Berne said: “Just another reason not to cruise with Carnival. You would need to be on a cruise all year to earn diamond. I will stay with Royal as diamond plus. Carnival get you in with cheap price then charge for everything.”

Karen Cross added similar thoughts: “Definitely no encouragement to cruise with them, had my first and last cruise this year. Will stick with Royal thank you.”

Cruiser Geoffrey Thornton feels its a money grab.

“Its all about the money you spend. That all this lot are about trying to get as much money out of you.”

Robyn Allen is a Carnival cruiser upset by the changes: “Mabe I’ll rethink who I cruise with as my cruise is after September 1st.”

Leanne Gillespie believes that the new system will drive cruisers to other cruise lines.

“Resetting every two years, does not promote loyalty. It will have people selecting cruises on what gives them benefits such as Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity etc.

Other cruisers on Reddit rather make the point that cruising isn’t about perks, which are fairly minimal most of the time anyway.

“These loyalty programs generally are just bread crumbs. I think the second tier just gives you a free bottle of water. I’m not going to base my cruise picks on free water bottles and priority boarding. A few free drinks would be nice, but that’s nothing compared to the money you would have already spent on their cruises.”

Another cruiser noted that the changes are unfortunate, but also recognises that something had to be done.

“Something had to give, if everyone has priority then no one has priority. There are only so many workers that can turn over rooms. Journeys cruises have had the perks taken away for a few years now. I honestly don’t care and never did as gaining top wasn’t a goal.

“We are gold and not far away from the next level. My wife used to gamble but they keep giving us cheap cruise offers so we will stick around while those last. Once they stop we will explore other lines. The perks of higher tiers aren’t worth giving up the experience of trying other lines and ships. Just me though.”

Another cruiser also noted this, having recently cruised on a ship where far too many guests were in the top loyalty tiers of the current system.

“Cruising under a loyalty has some pros and cons. I recently completed a sailing on a carnival ship as a platinum guest and it was so disorganized trying to get off as there were 1400 platinum guests on board and 300 diamond guests. I don’t know how carnival can extend loyalty to 1700 top cruisers

“A cruise I completed a few months ago had nearly the entire ship platinum that they only extended special services to diamond guests. Carnival could have fixed this problem by adding two new tiers. Like Platinum Plus and Diamond Plus and fixing the number of days sailed to achieve those statuses.”

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